International payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard should start sharing their income with Russia to shield the country against future possible disruption, said Natalya Burykina, head of the financial markets committee of the State Duma.

The new payments need to be introduced for foreign systems that
process payment data and settlements outside Russia, Burykina
said.

“There’s an idea to charge these operators of payment systems
with a security fee, but not very big,” the Vedomosti
business daily reported Burykina as saying.

Under the plan, the new charge would be levied at 0.25 percent of
one day’s profits per quarter for the payment systems.

The idea largely echoed the words of Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev, who told Russia’s Cabinet on Tuesday that March’s
disruptions by Visa and Mastercard violated
existing agreements and should be punished.

“We need to make an effort… to bring the correspondent
foreign partners to their senses,” Medvedev said.

He said the disruption was an additional incentive for Russia to
speed up a creation of its own domestic payment system, which has
been discussed for many years.

The creation of a National Payment System (NPS) for Russia is
being worked out by the country’s central bank, with the
government hoping to complete work on the project within the next
six months.